Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Jennie Lake, Grand Tetons, vacation photos #2

Two old goats - thank you to the kind Japanese man who offered to take our photo on this cold day.
When I was about 11, my father built a type of canvas and aluminum camper frame for the back of the pickup truck and the family of 6 headed from Illinois to Yellowstone. This was before people has 'real' campers. I remember parts of the trip, and mostly, I remember stopping at a very cold lake on the way home, where Mom said all us kids smelled pretty terrible, and she made us wade into some FREEZING COLD lake -- and wash. Even at that young age, I clearly remembered how beautiful the lake was - it had to be THIS Jennie Lake, in the Grand Teton National Park. And so I wanted to get back to that space, for those memories -- we made it! I KNOW this was the place - it just felt right!

Below is the Snake River - the highway follows the Snake for a very long time through Idaho - what beautiful fishing this must provide!
This is one of the few buildings left from DH's father's birthplace in Roseberry, Idaho, a town that is no longer 'there.' Note the roofline - it was built by Finns (from Finland) and many of the old roofs were built with this 'look'. Now, it's a museum.

The old General Store - upstairs was a "Dance Hall" where DH's father had a band. Our 80 year old hostess, a cousin to my DH, told us she sneaked off one evening as a teenager and attended the wicked "Dance Hall" upstairs, and was sorely punished when her mother found out!
Heading back home through Idaho, we went through Craters of the Moon, an area formed by molten Calderas, where lava had oozed through to the surface - scarey and bizarre! Yellowstone is at one end of the underground caldera system - you may have heard that Yellowstone is due for an eruption one of these thousand years.

14 comments:

  1. Jenny Lake is ice cold on even a hot, summer day.

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  2. My beautiful twin nieces were born and spent the first 8 years of their life in Yellowstone. (Parents in the Park Service.) I dearly loved flying in to Jackson Hole, seeing the Tetons, Jenny Lake, the Snake River - all of it so breathtakingly beautiful. Still my first choice for "If I could live anywhere...."
    Thanks for a great trip down memory lane.

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  3. Chortling!! You didn't say if you and DH bathed it the lake on this trip!

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  4. I love the "local color" you add to your vacation photos!

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  5. Wow, what wonderful personal memories for this area! The photos are amazing. I love to 'travel' via blogfriends!

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  6. Yellowstone has to be one of the beautiful places on this earth. I do hope I'm not there when it erupts though.

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  7. Such a nice post... very interesting comments and pictures, and the one of you and your hubby turned out really well!

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  8. What a wonderful trip you had thank you for sharing pictures. Brings back memories for me.We went to Ten Sleep, Wyoming about 1966 to attend the Mountain Climb car race. We camped down by the Nowood River below Ten Sleep. We traveled there in a similiar pickup cover,canvas and pipe. Us older kids above 10yrs rode all the way from Thermopolis in the back of the pickup. We too also, had to strip down and bath in the icy waters. It was terrible cold we stood shivering on blankets trying to dress with someone holding up a blanket screen. When we came home to Nebraska we all got sick. But what a wonderful time we had. Sew Peacefully Deb};o

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  9. I hope that the adventures I am having with my son now - I hope that years later he will want to retrace the steps and have such happy memories as you do! Sounds like fun - great photo of you 2. Cheers! Evelyn

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  10. I think that's some of the prettiest country in the US!! I've been to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons several times (just last year again) and could go again and again!! And took a mailboat up the Snake River several years ago (one of my favorite adventures ever!).

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  11. Oh Jennie Lake, I know it well. My MIL is from Sugar City in Idaho and much of the teton area was settled by mormons from Scandinavia. Hence the roof. It is a lovely area.

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  12. Your pictures are gorgeous! We will be on our way to Wyoming in about a week. We're in Oregon now visiting DS#1 & family. Then will drive through Idaho to Yellowstone and Grand Teton Nat'l Parks before heading back to hot Texas. We've been enjoying the cooler weather!

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  13. Nice to meet you again! And with your hubby alongside! It looks like you had a wonderful trip to Idaho! I wonder if I'll ever get there in my lifetime... I would love to see more of the States.

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  14. Nice pic of you and hubby. The Snake River is such a beautiful river. It's been several years now since we've seen it, so maybe another trip is in order!

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